Archive for August, 2016

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see Ghost, whom I’ve not seen since they were here in 2013, and also Macabre, whom I’ve never seen despite having been a fan pretty much since I learned that they wrote a whole album about Jeffrey Dahmer. The show was at the Myth, this gigantic night club north of St. Paul, which is where I saw King Diamond back in the fall. It was predictably packed, but I could see fairly well from my spot on the floor as long as I maneuvered myself between the tall people.

One of the most fun parts of the evening was seeing the reactions to Macabre from people who are not familiar with Macabre. If you aren’t familiar with them you should be- Macabre is a Chicago band that’s been the same three guys playing together since 1984. Their catalog is chock-full of silly songs about serial killers – and a whole album about Jeffrey Dahmer in particular – and their last album, Grim Scary Tales, was about killers of the more legendary variety like Dracula, Lizzie Borden, and the Roman emperor Nero. Death metal and grindcore is of course full of gore and guts and all that stuff, so that should be no surprise, but it would seem that the exploits of real life killers is still somewhat of a taboo subject to be singing about, at least if you are the guys who were standing directly in front of me.

Macabre

Macabre played a variety of songs from their catalog. From what I remember, they played Trial and Scrub a Dub Dub from the Dahmer album, Nero’s Inferno, Night Stalker, Vampire of Düsseldorf, Albert Was Worse Than Any Fish In The Sea, and The Iceman (he wasn’t a very nice man), and ended with Ed Gein, accompanied by a dude in a flannel shirt and burlap sack on his head. Despite the fact that they are from Chicago and relatively near me, I’d never gotten a chance to see Macabre live, and I was just as excited to see them as I was Ghost. The set was fun as hell and was pretty much everything I had hoped it’d be.

The vocalist sings into a headpiece microphone.

A blurry pic of the guy with the burlap mask.

The last time I saw Ghost it was at Mill City Nights, and The Myth is quite a bit bigger. I moved up a little closer, about halfway up to the stage on the floor, and I could see pretty well as long as I didn’t get stuck behind a tall person. The Nameless Ghouls had their Carnival masks on (and a friend of mine said they were down one? The show went well either way), and Papa E had on black robes this time. He changed into a cool, 18th century-looking jacket about halfway through the set, understandable because it was unbelievably freaking hot in there. They also did what I think was a little communion with two girls dressed as nuns (like I say, it was hard for me to see what was happening. Short and all). Papa E then “condemned them to the pit,” but first told the crowd that “if you want to grab something… don’t,” which I thought was a nice touch. 🙂

That drumkit was cool.

Hi Papa!

Ghost played for what seemed like a long time, and the only thing I could find to complain about is that they didn’t play more from Opus Eponymous (they played Ritual, of course, but that was it). What I recall of the setlist included Spirit (which they opened with), From the Pinnacle to the Pit, Cirice, Spöksonat, He Is, Mummy Dust, Absolution, If You Have Ghost(s), Ghuleh/Zombie Queen (I was super excited for this as they didn’t play it last time and it’s one of my favorite Ghost songs), Year Zero, and Body and Blood. They ended, as usual, with Monstrance Clock, complete with a great little commentary on the female orgasm. It was different from the last time I saw them, but I think between the two shows I have managed now to see all my favorite Ghost songs live.

The nuns.

Papa E rocking the vampire look.

I still haven’t acquired any Ghost merch, but that is okay because my goal for tonight was to get a Macabre shirt that is so offensive I can’t wear it but like two places. I think I succeeded; the shirt is pretty tame, except for the fact that Richard Ramirez himself is pretty offensive. It’s also purple! I also picked up a Macabre button for my jacket.

Front.

Back. “Swear to Satan” is what Ramirez made his victims do before he killed them. (Fun facts to know and share!)

Macabre button. I think I got the last one like this.

Overall, this was a really fun night. I got to see Macabre, FINALLY, and I saw Ghost again after entirely too long. Onward to the next: Baroness and Pallbearer on Tuesday, Belphegor (and SHINING! AHH!) on Wednesday. Don’t be too shocked if you see a wild Shining post appear in here somewhere, it is their 20th anniversary…

Erzebet, or Elizabeth, Bathory was born August 7th, 1560 (HAPPY BIRTHDAY). While there’s no proof that she actually bathed in the blood of virgins, as those rumors weren’t circulated until after her death, she definitely murdered a whole crapton of young women. There are disagreements as to how many, however; though the official body count seems to be 80, one serving girl claimed that Bathory murdered up to 650. The Countess managed to escape trial due to the shame it would bring to her very influential family, but she was nevertheless imprisoned and sealed up in a castle in Hungary. (I took most of this from Wikipedia.)

Elizabeth Bathory is also one of the patron saints of heavy metal, as her story is beset with imagery of bathing in blood, eternal youth, vampirism, possible links to the Devil, you know, pretty much everything you could want in a gothic sensational tale. So here’s a playlist I threw together of a bunch of songs relating to Countess Bathory, either directly or through blood-bathing references, name-dropping, or other indirect means.

Tormentor – Elizabeth Bathory

[Let’s start this off with a band from the Countess’ native Hungary, shall we?]

Sunn O))) – Bathory Erzebet

Ghost – Elizabeth

Electric Wizard – Torquemada 71

[This one is more about Torquemada, of course, but the Countess does get name-dropped.]Venom – Countess Bathory

Evile – Bathe in Blood

[Some more general blood-bathing and murder.]

Candlemass – The Bleeding Baroness

X-Japan – Rose of Pain

[I swear one of these days I’m going to do a post entirely about X-Japan and how amazing they are. I had forgotten all about this song, and it’s great, just like everything else this band ever did.]

Bathory – Woman of Dark Desires

[No playlist for Elizabeth Bathory is complete without Bathory, of course.]

Cradle of Filth – Cruelty and the Beast

[…And then there was that time when Cradle of Filth made an entire album about her.]

***

I’ll be back soon with a review of Ghost and Macabre, and a big ol’ post about how much I love Shining, since they’ve been around for 20 years now and I get to see them in a couple of weeks.

So I am on a cleaning mission. I’m tearing apart my apartment, because I only three bookshelves and they are all overflowing, and I have a closet and chest of drawers chock full of stuff I don’t wear and don’t need and don’t want, so I need to get rid of some of this crap. And my landlord is gonna be disappointed in me because the city people are supposed to come by and inspect tomorrow and it looks like a minor scale hurricane came through here but I don’t even care because when I’m done it will be awesome.

The important point to all this is that I have found things I didn’t realize I still had. Like burned CD copies of all the old Mayhem bootlegs.

Guess who didn’t get tickets to Metal Threat Fest in time to take off the whole weekend and go? THIS LADY. With class at 8AM Saturday, however, I wouldn’t have been able to stay the whole weekend even if I had wanted to. And so it was that I got tickets for the “Warm Up Show” on Thursday eve, inasmuch as fucking Destroyer 666 plays the “Warm Up Show.” The saddest part was that since everyone else stayed, I drove down and back by myself. At the same time, school has been stressing me out bad lately, and driving long distances while listening to Electric Wizard is kind of my zen place.

Me and the pals missed the first couple of bands, due to our getting stuck in traffic on the way to the Metal Haven Grill. I was starving by the time we got there, but fortunately they had 10 inch Polish sausages wrapped in bacon so that situation very quickly rectified itself. I don’t think that it has been a restaurant for very long as they still seem to be establishing a full menu, but my meal at least was delicious. They also had records and CDs to buy, and some books (like the Slayer Mag Diaries, which is the best book ever).

I snagged Forgotten Woods, an Arckanum album that somehow slipped beneath my radar, and some Kommandant, whose patch is on my jacket and whom I like, but for some reason didn’t own any of their stuff.

Well, we got stuck in Chicago afternoon traffic, so we missed Peucharist and Nuke, but we did get to the venue in enough time to see about half of Ares Kingdom’s set. Ares Kingdom is a band that a lot of my friends love that I don’t know much about because… I’m an idiot and also I need about four more hours in each day to be able to get everything done and listen to everything that I would like. I did greatly enjoy their set though, and I had pretty high expectations having had it built up for me so much.

Ares Kingdom

I’m not sure what led to the decision to have Destroyer 666 play next instead of in the headlining slot, and it’s kind of a bummer because a friend suggested that they might have played a slightly longer set (?). But make no mistake, this is what I drove down for and it was totally worth it. They played a variety of stuff, the ones off the top of my head that I remember being Lone Wolf Winter, I Am the War God, Wildfire, Live and Burn, The Calling, Hounds At Ya Back, and Trialed By Fire, which they dedicated to Selim Lemouchi of The Devil’s Blood (may he Reign in Chaos). Also, they did a cover of Motorhead’s Iron Fist, which was about as fun as you would expect. It was a fantastic set, the band was spot on, everyone was happy, no one was rousing rabble, and Mr. Warslut seemed practically cheerful (he only called a couple of people “fucking cunts,” and considering that they were filming the set, they probably deserved it).

Destroyer 666

Please forgive me for snapping photos, Mr. Warslut. It’s just for the blog.

Next up was Angelcorpse, who I was also excited to see. I love me some war metal, and having listened to pretty much nothing but Revenge leading up to this shindig, I was ready for some. Unfortunately, I’m not familiar enough with their catalog to give a run-down of the setlist, but it was much akin to being punched in the face repeatedly, which is kinda what you want when Angelcorpse plays.

Angelcorpse

The night ended with Barbatos, who I had never heard of, but is a project of Abigail vocalist, guitarist, and bassist Yasuyuki Suzuki. They play a kind of mix of punky, blackish thrash, and are fun as shit. While it would have been cool to get a full set from Destroyer 666, I was totally fine with Barbatos finishing up the night as they were fun, exciting, and a great ending to the first night of a metal festival and a warm up for a four day party (which I unfortunately could not attend the rest of).

Barbatos

I ended up with a lot of stuff; there was no merch for Angelcorpse or Destroyer 666 that I saw, but I cleaned up with the music. Along with the albums I bought at Metal Haven Grill, I acquired Destroyer 666’s Pheonix Rising and Cold Steel…For an Iron Age, Funeral Mist’s Devilry (I never owned it on CD, though I do have it on vinyl). I also got a Mgła patch, and from my friend Carlos, I got a Sacrocurse patch and a Transilvanian Hunger shirt that SPARKLES.

No, I’m not kidding. The logo has glitter on it. GLITTER.

**A note on Destroyer 666 because I feel like in the midst of all the hubbub I should probably say something: their set was absolutely fantastic, and if anything was done to offend anyone, I certainly didn’t catch it. Going in I was a little worried because I thought that someone might use it as a chance to cause trouble, but contrary to my fears the crowd was absolutely wonderful. KK Warslut briefly alluded to the recent blog posts about him a couple of times so it was clearly on his mind, but they played a hell of a set and were extremely gracious, and the crowd was supportive as well. So, by chance anyone from Destroyer 666 happens to come across my little blog—Thank you guys for coming here, and I hope the rest of the tour was a brilliant as the Chicago show.**

I apologize that this review is not as good as it should have been- I know Destroyer 666 well enough, but the other bands are still pretty new to me (I know Angelcorpse in that I know that they are like other stuff that I like, and I enjoyed the shit out of it, but I don’t know specifics). While I only got to go for one night, what I saw of Metal Threat was fantastic, and as this summer has been very stressful for me with school it was nice to have a day off to enjoy myself and get out of the Twin Cities.

I’ll be working up a review of Macabre (!) and Ghost soon, both of whom I know a lot better than the bands that played this night.